UPDATE: See the end of this post
There’s a young man who lives in our region of Durham, Pickering to be exact and he’s now in his mid-20s. He’s challenged, autistic, high functioning. His difficulty is that he finds it very difficult to socialize with anyone. Because of his autism, he withdraws, as if intimidated by the conversation. This means any time anyone speaks to him, he tends to shy away and back off as if the backing away is a defensive mechanism.
This lad dresses as any young man of his age would, jeans, a jean jacket, a hoodie, a T-shirt and loosely laced work boots. Oh, and he’s black with an afro and dreads.
He was always good with his hands. He could dismantle almost any broken machine and reassemble it so it operated again. When he got his driver’s license, the story got even better. He started to repair cars, not only repairing them making them operational once more, but also restoring them physically. Any car he worked on increased in value significantly once he was through with it.
But this lad was a saver too. He bought old, rusty models that needed repair, fixed them up, and resold them at a profit, each time buying himself a newer or better model car. In no time, he was driving Honda Accords, Toyota Corollas, Subarus, and even an Audi but he’s a black driver.
As his car models got better, he was stopped more and more frequently by the local police. “This your car?” “You got registration for this car?” “Who’s car is this?” “Show me your license and registration papers.” The lad never understood why he was being stopped and investigated so often. He drove carefully, always within the posted speed limit. Yet, almost daily, he was stopped in order that his driving documentation could be verified.
Eventually, the regional police must have stopped him enough times that their computer spit out his name and that his documentation was all valid in an instant upon data entry by the enforcing officer.
Now, this young man has twin sisters, just a couple of years younger than he is. They were superb students, both young women making the dean’s list at their respective universities. Each sailed through university on scholarships and honours lists. They are black. Upon graduation, one went into the field of media, being hired as an apprentice producer for a national TV network. She excelled at her job. She is black. Her twin sister went into the field of finance working in the executive offices of one of the big banks, not as a secretary, but as an accountant, a comptroller. She excelled at her job but she was black. Each day, one fellow worker seemed to take liberties with her making remarks which would normally be labeled as offensive or harassing. The remarks were not necessarily sexual in tone. However, they were demeaning remarks, always with a racist slant. Finally, her level of tolerance was reached and she reported him to HR. Ultimately, the matter was taken to court as a legal issue. It wasn’t settled at the bank or by the bank’s HR department. She’s black. She won her case. The office employee and the bank made formal apologies to the young woman, the court decided on appropriate restitution and today she carries more weight around the offices in which she works. She is diminutive physically but a giant in courage and capability. She’s black.
The story is sad enough as is based on its flagrant racism. What makes it even more shocking and upsetting is that police officers are the perpetrators of this anti-social racist behaviour. Could our police department need some in-servicing and education?
[For obvious reasons, the victims of this story cannot be identified but it is a true story and a real snapshot taken in our community.]
UPDATE
Anti-Black Racism Committee meeting:
